Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitic
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https://www.dw.com/en/why-achille-mbembe-was-accused-of-anti-semitism/a-53293797
Achille Mbembe has been accused of anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel. He claims that the “shameful allegations” against him are unfounded. “Everything I have ever written or said rests on a single foundation, namely the hope for the development of a truly universal community, from which no one is excluded,”
Just a reminder that opposition to Israeli government policy is not anti-semitism
Thousands of Israelis demonstrated on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to extend sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank, de-facto annexation of land that the Palestinians seek for a state… the demonstrators gathered under the banner “no to annexation, no to occupation, yes to peace and democracy.”
Semite is not a race or an ethnic group, it is a linguistic concept, therefore, Semitism is a historical fallacy supported by the Bible only. Judaism is a faith, it is not a nationality
Follow up
The head of the center-left Meretz Party, Nitzan Horowitz, addressed the huge rally, saying, “Annexation is a war crime, a crime against humanity and against peace, a crime against democracy, a crime that will cost us blood.”
It was the biggest demonstration by the Israeli left wing in many years, and was remarkable for its mixed character, with both Jewish and Palestinian Israelis coming out.
In 2012 the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on a poll suggesting that at least one-third of Israelis would consider emigrating abroad if the opportunity presented itself. This was not to be temporary phenomenon. An updated 2018 Newsweek article stated that “Israel celebrates its 70th birthday in May with the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Yet the country is grappling with an existential crisis. … Spurred by the high cost of living, low salaries, and political and demographic trends, Israelis are leaving the country in droves.” Given the fact that “Israel has one of the highest poverty rates and levels of income inequality in the Western world,” you can see why the notion that Israel is “absolutely essential … to the security of Jews around the world” is up for debate among Jews themselves.
Hard-liner Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s settlements minister, has been namedas ambassador to the UK.
She has described herself as “a religious rightwinger” and rejects Palestinian claims to any part of the West Bank, Gaza or East Jerusalem. In a speech in 2015, she said Israel had tried too hard to appease the world. “This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologise for that.”
800 British Jews have signed a petition posted online by the anti-occupation campaign group Na’amod highlighting Hotovely’s “appalling record of racist and inflammatory behaviour” and calling on the UK government to reject her nomination as ambassador. The appointment of envoys requires the approval of the host country. A counter-petition supporting Hotovely attracted 240 signatures.
<p class=”css-h6rhrn”>A spokesperson for Na’amod said: “There is clearly growing unrest in our community about Israel’s blatant disregard for human rights, and people increasingly realise that it is time to take a stand.”</p>
<p class=”css-h6rhrn”>Laura Janner-Klausner, the senior rabbi to Reform Judaism, also criticised Hotovely’s record. “Her political views on Palestinians, annexation and religious pluralism clash with our core values,” she said.</p>
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/20/outrage-as-hardliner-tzipi-hotovely-is-chosen-as-next-israeli-ambassador-to-ukHotovely launched an outspoken attack on the Board of Deputies over its support for a Palestinian state in its 2019 Jewish Manifesto. She accused the Board of failing to consult “Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our ambassador, any other political authority” ahead of the manifesto’s release.
In 2017 her talk at Princeton University was cancelled following a petition by a student group called the Alliance of Jewish Progressives.
An indirect link here asking questions, if not providing any answers ,about the politics behind the ‘sacrality’ of Holocaust remembrance.
WSWS: ‘UK Labour leader Keir Starmer uses bogus anti-Semitism accusation to sack Rebecca Long-Bailey’:
To be fair, the statement that Long-Bailey didn’t object to was anti-Semitic even if maybe not intentional. Why bring the Israeli secret service into it unless you’ve got an agenda? It was also incorrect. See:
Long-Bailey was being either naive or more probably arrogant in refusing to remove her endorsement of the article as she thought she was irremovable. We don’t need to shed any tears over her fate as she slides down the greasy pole a bit.
An essay by Jonathan Cook expressing the hypocrisy of Starmer
Even Peake has admitted that she was wrong, tweeting “I feel it’s important for me to clarify that, when talking to The Independent, I was inaccurate in my assumption of American Police training & its sources.” She didn’t explain why she immediately jumped to the conclusion that the Israeli secret service must have been involved.
According to Cook, she also thinks that we are being ruled by “capitalist, fascist dictators”, another indication of how prone she is to conspiracy theories. On the other hand, she might just be a joke. Citizeness Smith.
“The ideological inspiration for the Rojava federation is the Jewish-American Zionist anarchist philosopher Murray Bookchin who was especially influential to PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan. Unbeknownst to many, Bookchin was also a noted Zionist — but this is not as unlikely a paradox as it may seem. After all, Israel itself was initially established with the settlement of communes and the Zionist form of “autonomous zones” known as kibbutz (“gathering” in Hebrew).”
“One other highly influential thinker in the anarchist community who purports to be a ‘libertarian socialist’, Noam Chomsky, was himself part of the Zionist kibbutz movement in his youth.”
The criticism of Bookchin’s analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very a-historical when Bookchin tries to offer another interpretation of events. I can cite chapter and verse of left-wing pro-Jewish criticism of the British anti-Jewish immigration policy of the era.
Another informative article by Jonathan Cook
“Peter Beinart, an influential liberal commentator on Israel and Zionism variously described as the “pope of liberal Zionism” and a “bellwether for the American Jewish community” concluded: “The painful truth is that the project to which liberal Zionists like myself have devoted ourselves for decades – a state for Palestinians separated from a state for Jews – has failed… It is time for liberal Zionists to abandon the goal of Jewish-Palestinian separation and embrace the goal of Jewish-Palestinian equality.”
“Beinart’s main point is that a commitment to Israel is now entirely incompatible with a commitment to equality for the region’s inhabitants…Beinart is doubtless ahead of most liberal Jews in the US in rejecting Israel as a Jewish state. But it would be foolish indeed to imagine that there are not many others already contemplating following in his footsteps.”
A slap in the face for those who consider denying the legitimacy of the Israeli state is anti-semitic.
According to yesterday’s papers the Labour MP Lloyd Russel-Moyle has had to resign from Labour’s front bench”after the Sunday Times unearthed Facebook messages in which he called Zionism a ‘dangerous nationalist idea’”.
But that’s what it is ! And why Socialists, including those of Jewish background, were opposed to it from the start. Of course we were also opposed to all nationalism. Irish nationalism, Scottish nationalism, Welsh nationalism and other minority and breakaway nationalisms are equally “dangerous” as they set worker against worker.
“There was the Jewish Bund, which was a left-wing socialist movement that rose to prominence in the early 20th century that articulated a deterritorialized nationalism in Eastern Europe. They felt their place was Eastern Europe, their land was Eastern Europe, their language was Yiddish. And they wanted to struggle for freedom in Europe where they actually lived. And they felt that their struggle for liberation was against oppressive capitalist governments in Europe.”
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